


Late is Better Than Never

by DatGirlSuzie



Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bandit is Chilling like and Ice Berg, Eventual Smut, Fuze is trying to impress Jager, M/M, POV switch, Pining, They're all chasing after Jäger, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 10:06:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14542359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DatGirlSuzie/pseuds/DatGirlSuzie
Summary: In the events after 'Can You Fit a Fourth', Shuhrat is trying to strengthen his relationship with Marius. The only problem is that Elias and Dominic keep getting in his way.Longest fic I've ever attempted at writing so I hope it turns out ok!MAJOR Edit on 7/29/2018So many thanks to Rosallora for helping me edit this fic! It's 1000x better! Trust me, it's worth giving another shot!





	Late is Better Than Never

**Author's Note:**

> Fuze is losing the war for Jäger's love, this trip to the beach is the final chance he has to winning the German over.
> 
> Personal note:  
> I wanted to apologize to all of you for not updating in so long. Have been out of the country and without a computer for the past few months and will be for a few more weeks. Once I get back, I promise to update as soon as I can while not letting the quality drop to where it was. I have prioritized editing the fic and am so thankful for Rosallora for helping me. I'm sorry for the previous quality and I promise to never let it happen again.

“Honestly, I don’t think I can keep all the theorems memorized long enough to think through all of them at once,” Shuhrat said to Marius. “He just keeps piling them on - what the hell is Rolle’s Theorem? How is it any different from Riemann’s sum? Honestly, this is too much to put in our heads on a Thursday night. Professor Tennanhaj should know that most of us will drink it away over the weekend and come back on Tuesday knowing none of it. Or at least, the smart ones will. Drink it away, that is.” His complaining didn’t go unnoticed by his classmate as he packed up in the already sparsely populated room, just a few students packing up remaining.

“I think the professor’s just as eager as we are to be done with work for the week,” Marius responds. “Did you see him bolt out after class? He was packing up before we were!” The German chuckles as he gathers up his things, but he pauses, rolling Shuhrat’s question over in his head a bit before answering. “And I mean, it isn’t that hard. Rolle’s theorem says that any approximating function…” Unfortunately, as much as he needed the review, Shuhrat gets a little bit lost in how his classmate’s eyes were glinting and shifting as he explained, his hands moving in fluid motions as he punctuated his sentences. When he talked about what he was passionate about, the man just sparked to life; even if Shuhrat didn’t even struggle with the topic, he just loved seeing Marius talk about equations. “And that’s how the Riemann’s sum helps us calculate the area beneath a curve.”  


Shuhrat realizes that Marius might want him to say something to all that, but he doesn’t really know what. He looks at him, awkwardly, a bit of a blindsided, dopey smile on his face as he wills words to come to his brain. As he struggles to think of a coherent sentence, he was saved from a response by a familiar voice.  


“So, when are you applying for tenure, Marius?”  


Shuhrat turned his head and saw both Dominic and Elias were walking towards them.  


Marius quickly turned to greet the newcomers, laughing through a “Next semester, maybe, we’ll see if I’ve impressed the dean enough,” and Shuhrat sees that he’s losing Marius’ attention. The two Germans, Elias and Dominic, have already launched into an animated conversation about what classes Marius is teaching next semester, and Marius is enjoying it thoroughly, enjoying being in the limelight when it was just a few friends that he obviously trusted. At heart, Shuhrat liked hanging out with them too. They often spent time together outside of class since their meeting a few months ago; It was easy to bond over soccer game viewings and their respective classes. However, when their intentions with Marius became apparent, his feelings towards them complicated a bit.  


It happened one evening while they were staying at Elias’ apartment off campus. Marius had stepped out to call in their ridiculously complicated pizza order when Dominic asked them if either Elias or Shuhrat found Marius attractive. The room instantly quieted and they sat in awkward silence before Shuhrat spoke up and stated that, well, he did. The other two quickly followed with varying amounts of embarrassment to their voices, and there was a strange, palpable silence. Nothing more was said, but it was understood. Only one of them could date Marius, and they all wanted to. So to Shuhrat, the game was on.  


Despite being Marius' friend longer, both Dominic and Elias had a trait that Shuhrat just couldn’t compete with: they were German. Most of the time it wasn’t such a big deal - they all spoke English with enough proficiency that occasional German or Russian words tossed in could be understood by context. They had all learned from each other even, some Russian words getting picked up occasionally by Elias, and Shuhrat doing his best to internalize more than the right way to pronounce “sauerkraut”. But occasionally, Elias or Dominic would indulge in entertaining Marius with inside jokes, and it stung a bit. It wouldn’t be so bad if Dominic didn’t purposefully go out of his way to only tell jokes to Marius in German, paired with a smirk towards Shuhrat.  


It wasn’t like he didn’t indulge in his own inside jokes when he was around Maxim and Timurkov, but that was different. The three of them were Russian; no one got left out. Timurkov, despite being deaf, read lips more than well enough to follow along, and Shuhrat used notes as much as possible when asking the man questions directly. Maxim had even taught him a few signs, much to the other’s approval. They worked on communication. Dominic had no such interest. He insisted on making the jokes, and even when Elias or Marius tried to translate, it was made clear that some things just couldn’t cross the barrier.  


And it wasn’t just jokes that Dominic told in German that pissed Shuhrat off; the prankster would often just switch to German mid-sentence just to exclude the Uzbek. The transition would be so fluid that both Marius and Elias wouldn’t realize they switched over as well until Shuhrat asked what happened. Both would apologize and explain but that didn’t mean it left any less of a bitter taste in Shuhrat’s mouth.  


Elias wasn’t nearly as mean. He always translated when Dominic spoke in German, and even taught Shuhrat a few phrases. The problem was that Marius was more affectionate with Elias; it’d taken Shuhrat a while to realize it, but once he saw it, he couldn’t stop seeing it. Marius always seemed to end up next to Elias at a table, and drifting towards him during group conversations. Whenever they hung out, Elias’ arm would almost always be around Marius’ shoulders, and Marius would settle into place, like he belonged there. Like they were a real couple already. And that lit a real fire under Shuhrat’s ass: he couldn’t just give up because Marius looked content and Elias was nicer than Dominic. Despite being rejected months ago, Shuhrat knew he still had a chance with Marius. He had to.  


“You know guys, we should go to the beach this weekend. It’s finally hot enough and we could camp out on the sand if we wanted.” Marius' voice startled Shuhrat out of his determined daydreaming. Going to the beach with Marius was another opportunity to get his crush to notice him again - not to mention to see him shirtless for the first time in person.  


“Sure!” He quickly exclaimed, probably looking too excited about the idea. “I don’t have any Friday classes, so we could leave tomorrow morning.” Shuhrat looked at the other two.  


Elias nods his agreement, and Dominic shrugs.“I have East Asian Civ on Fridays, but what the hell. Skipping every once in a while won’t kill me.”  


Marius starts to protest but Dominic grins and waves him off before he can even start in on it. “Aw c’mon Professor Streicher, gimme a break. I’ve been a hard worker all week and deserve to go relax with a few friends.” That raises smiles from the rest of them, watching Dominic fend off Marius' insisting that he go to class the next day. They all knew that Dom would win out, but the struggle was fun to see regardless.  


Plans were made, times were set, and the four of them headed back to their respective homes. Shuhrat laid in his dorm room bed, the bag for the trip hanging on his door handle. He turns his eyes to his phone, and taps out a message to Marius.  


Shuhrat: You up?  


Marius: Yea, finding it hard to sleep. So excited for tomorrow!  


Shuhrat: Me too.  


Marius: Have you been to the beaches around here?  


Shuhrat: No. Anything I should know?  


Marius: Well we aren’t exactly in Miami if you get what I mean.

He’s made content by their conversation, typing back and forth on his phone until he felt his eyes start to droop. After a “Goodnight, Marius” he rolls over, alarm set for nine the next morning. They’d want to get an early start on the day.  


\-----------------------------  


Since Elias was the only one who had a car, the question of who would drive was easily answered. Shuhrat couldn’t be happier: it gave him the perfect opportunity to cuddle with Marius in the backseat.  


When he got there, Elias was already on the porch with Marius, talking about something or other. That was usual, though it made a spark of jealousy burn in him. What he didn’t expect was the strange white cat that Elias was holding in his arms. When it turned its head to him, it blinked with strange, blue and yellow mismatched eyes. Shuhrat frowns slightly. “This a new arrival?” he asks.  


Elias shakes his head. “His name is Krieg, although most everyone just calls him Greg. He spends most of his time in my room if he’s not outside but I figured that I might as well socialize him to everyone else - you’re over enough after all. Don’t want him getting testy around friends.” Elias lightly releases the cat onto the ground, and it lands gracefully on its white paws. Krieg wanders up to the Uzbek and wastes no time in setting to kneading his leg, a rather rasping sounding meow sounding from its throat. Shuhrat winced as he felt the sharp claws begin to lightly puncture his thigh. He grimaces as he leans down, Krieg purring as Shuhrat gave him the attention that he so obviously wanted.  


“Let go,” he whispers in Russian. “Please. I need that.”  


Krieg only took the petting as encouragement and the next set of punctures stung so sharply that the Uzbek let out a small yelp. Elias looks away from Marius, who he was talking with, to the sight, and rushes over. “Shit - I didn’t realize that his nails were so long. I need to trim those. Sorry, Shuhrat. Krieg, what the fuck, man? This isn’t a good first impression.” Elias picked up the cat, the culprit surprised to be pulled away from its new entertainment. Luckily, Krieg was in the air before any more of Shuhrat’s skin could be torn.  


“I’m gonna put him inside before he turns anyone into mincemeat.” Elias smiles apologetically to Shuhrat and heads inside, cat in tow. Marius takes it upon himself to tend to the wounds, hissing sympathetically as he moved the man’s sweats up a bit to see the damage.  


“It’s not that bad,” Shuhrat says, trying to soothe both Marius and Elias as the latter walks back out. “I know he didn’t mean to hurt me.”  


“Problem is he liked you too much,” Elias hands Marius some gauze pads before trying to convince Shuhrat that he really was a good cat. Once Shuhrat stopped bleeding, the German called for Dominic, who was apparently still sleeping in upstairs, and started herding everyone into the car.  


Shuhrat made sure to sit in the back with Marius; he knew that being back there would allow him the most cuddle time with him. When Dominic sleepily called shotgun, he suppressed the urge to fight him on it, relenting immediately. As he crawled into the car, he had to physically lift up his scratched leg. Seeing Dominic give him the side eye when he realized Shuhrat’s plan, he felt proud with his decision and he scooted closer to Marius. It gave him immense satisfaction when Marius instinctively leaned into him - perhaps a bit too much, he realizes, when his cock jumps to attention a bit.  


Embarrassment shot through his body: he’s trapped in a car with three other guys. There’s no way to hide his growing erection without being found out. Using his free arm to move stuff onto his lap in only the most subtle of gestures, Shuhrat bought himself some time as Elias and Dominic loaded the rest of the beach supplies into the car.  


It was blissful holding Marius even as the intermittent sound of car doors slamming broke the calm morning silence. The German’s light brown hair looked just right and gently mussed as it pressed against Shuhrat’s chest. The sound of the trunk closing snapped Shuhrat out of his trance, he watched as the two slid into their front seats. Dominic immediately started talking to the other two in German, Shuhrat grimacing. Already with this shit? Marius jolted upright, laughed, and responded in kind to his friend. Blitz followed suit, but his eyes quickly darted to Shuhrat. The three Germans were laughing with him sitting in what felt to be the very middle of it all, and in that moment, not even Marius' laugh was endearing. In the chaos, Elias’ lingering gaze at him indicated that it was probably at his expense.  


“What’s so fucking funny?” He snapped, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice and failing spectacularly. Marius was quick to notice his friend’s attitude shift and he tried to translate in between breaths.  


“Oh, he just commented that we looked like a couple.” Another fit of giggles “And I said I’d, well, heh, be the one on top.” Shuhrat’s face immediately turned red and his dick started the harden once more. He wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed that Marius took them being together as a joke, or to be happy he wasn’t outright rejected again in front of the other two. He chose the latter. Hollowly laughing along, he watches Elias’s neighborhood whizz by, the Germans talking lazily to each other about where the beach was.  


Watching the world move around him, Shuhrat was mesmerized by Maryland’s beauty. Having moved to the States just a year prior, he was shocked by how quickly he got accustomed to the move. Sure, he had to go from knowing the basics of English to a much more nuanced understanding pretty quickly, but most everyone was extremely understanding and helped him as much as they could. And immersion was the best way to learn anyway, even if some days the turns of phrase gave him a massive headache. He made a lot of new friends and was surprised to find people who spoke Russian, and that there was even a Russian club - a welcome break after days and days of nothing but English.  


The other members were Timur and Maxim. At first, he thought they were just close friends, however, once he had gotten to know them better, they let him know that they were dating. It was a shocker for Shuhrat - Russia wasn’t kind to people like him - and like them. But here in the States, things were a bit different; they could hold hands on campus and kiss in public, at least. He was proud of his friends, and happy that they’d found each other. Timur was a painter, and despite being deaf, Shuhrat barely felt a language barrier between them. Maxim would always keep a pad of paper nearby so Timur could write, and the painter was teaching the both of them how to sign as they talked. It wasn't easy, but Shuhrat was determined to learn it to make it easier on Timur. It only made sense. Maxim on the other hand was a completely different story. The comically protective boyfriend was still adjusting to dating on the whole, and he often would hover over the shorter man, ensuring he was safe. Whether or not it was because Timur was deaf was lost on Shuhrat, but he knew Timur would put his boyfriend in his place if he had to. There’d be one hell of a “talking” to if Maxim was putting up all this fuss because Timur was deaf.  


Technically the Russian Club had four members, but the last was the professor who manages the club, and said professor kind of scares him. Dr. Senaviev was the professor of Russian history and chair of the history department. From what he heard, the old man always had trouble with electronics, so his lectures consisted of him writing everything on a whiteboard while the students struggled to keep up. As intimidating as he could be, Timur would always recount stories of the time the Doctor would flip a desk over and reenact a famous battle - he was enthusiastic in his research and teaching. Unfortunately, it also meant the tests were extremely difficult. High expectations were hard to reach, and Dr. Senaviev had only the highest expectations for his students.  


Smiling to himself, Shuhrat was pulled from his thoughts by a certain German man pawing at him. Turning towards Marius, Shuhrat was surprised to see they were pulling into the parking lot of the beach.  


“Shuh-y.” The affectionate nickname that Marius gave him never failed to stir something inside him. “C’mon, it’s time to get out of the car.” The German weakly tried to push Shuhrat out of his seat, despite the fact that he was still buckled in. Shuhrat laughed as Marius' enthusiasm for the beach wasn’t curbed by the sitting Uzbek in front of him. Stepping out of the car, harsh sunlight and heat greeted Shuhrat. The man turns back to the car to grab his sunscreen and towel, using the shade from the interior to adjust his sight a bit. He took a second to recover, and when he turned back to the view he discovered the beach was surprisingly empty. There were only a few other cars in the lot.  


Dominic stepped out of the passenger’s seat, looking over the beach. “Shit, Elias. How is this place so empty?”  


“It’s a bit off the beaten path. I thought if we wanted to go to the beach, someone else might today, and I didn’t want to deal with the crowds. Downside is there isn’t going to be anyone selling iced lemonades or hotdogs, but I figured we’d survive,” Elias replied. Marius walks through the bit of underbrush separating the car from the beachfront, looking down as not to prick himself on any thorns as he tromped through. Shuhrat spies Elias as he smiles, watching Marius make his way down to the beach. He looked happy. Too happy.  


Not paying the short man much attention, Shuhrat turned his attention to Dominic, who was currently trying to pry the boogie boards out of where Elias had stored in the back. He huffs loudly when he realizes they’re pinioned behind a beach umbrella that Elias comments is completely broken because of the botched crank mechanism - he’s kept it in here since last summer because he couldn’t be bothered to take it out.  


“I would’ve trashed it when we left,” Dominic gripes, “It’s an umbrella, it’s not like it weighs a ton. Easy to take care of.”  


Elias shrugs, a bit sheepish. “Listen. I got lazy.”  


“What, for ten months? I don’t feel like wading through all your old shit to get to the boards. Why the hell didn’t we take care of this when-”  


“Guys! Come on!” Marius' voice sounds from the shore, and the three of them look up to see he’s already taken off his flip flops in favor of putting his toes in the sand.  


Shuhrat glances at the two bickering Germans and starts going through the brush himself, removing his shirt as he steps onto the sand. Of course, it wasn’t like he did it quickly. He can feel Elias and Dominic rolling their eyes behind him, but he doesn’t care. He’d worked hard for this body; his toned, defined abs flexed in the blinding sunlight.  


Slowly stretching, Shuhrat made sure to flex slightly so that Marius could see the extent of his muscles. It had the desired effect, and soon Marius was openly staring at him. Shuhrat knew the German was his - even if he’d fucked up before, he couldn’t say no to his physique. He tosses his shirt haphazardly on top of the brush, uncaring.  


Marius must have realized that he was looking for too long, because he glanced away far too quickly for Shuhrat’s taste. Then there’s a cough behind them, and Shuhrat looks in slight horror as both Elias and Dominic follow suit. Sure, it was inevitable, but he wishes he could’ve kept Marius' attention all to himself for just a bit longer.  


While neither of them was as muscular as Shuhrat, Elias was definitely close. His hairless chest and abs were well defined, lovely in the sunlight. Dominic on the other hand seemed much thinner than the other two, but his slimmer body was a nice contrast to those of his counterparts, making him seem lithe and almost graceful, though he’d never describe himself as such. Shuhrat cringes as the two of them pose against the car, obviously mocking how he’d taken off his shirt as slowly as possible. And though they were making fun of him, they didn’t look all that bad doing it! That was the real problem here.  


Shuhrat turns as Marius suggests that they get into the water. The German’s face was red as could be, but otherwise he seemed unbothered by the display in front of him. Shuhrat was able to control himself long enough not to glance down at Marius' swim trunks to see if he’d gotten hard from the display. At his display, not the two clowns still grabbing their towels from the car.  


Uncapping his sunscreen, the Uzbek lathered himself in it before handing it off to the other guys once they head over. Once everyone was done slapping white handprints on each other and trying to make it so they didn’t have streaks all over their faces, they walked over to a part of the beach where the sand wasn’t as pebbly. The conversation between them was light, talking about cafeteria food and finals that were coming up in a few weeks. Elias makes the offer to do some home cooking on the Sunday before finals week, and that brings a smile to everyone’s faces. He promises loudly that he won’t burn anything, earning a loud squawk of a laugh from Dominic, and Marius tells Shuhrat about the last time Elias got particularly ambitious.  


“It’s not like we had to call the fire department,” he groans.  


Dominic smirks, “The neighbors would’ve if you hadn’t have run next door.”  


“And then your rag caught fire when you were over there-”  


“Both of you can shut up,” Elias says, pushing both of them forwards by their bare shoulders. He ruffles Marius' hair and the two of them share a smile that makes Shuhrat’s stomach turn.  


“Enough walking,” Shuhrat says. “I thought we were going to get in the water.” He pauses a moment, looking at the others, and the competitive glint in his eye doesn’t go unnoticed. The four of them break into a sprint, hurling themselves towards the water.  


Marius and Dominic dart ahead, Dominic’s long legs doing him plenty of favors. Elias and Shuhrat brought up the rear, the former kicking up sand as he almost trips and falls. Dominic runs as far as he could, the water reaching his knees before he hurls himself in, sending up a wave of froth in his wake. Marius stumbles his way in, watching as his friend’s head resurfaced, hair plastered to his face. “Come on, you fucking turtles!”  


Just when he was about to dive in, Marius was caught off guard by a pair of hands that hoisted him upwards. Looking to see the perpetrator, he was surprised to see that it was none other than Elias who held the steady grip on him. Laughing as the shorter man lifted him with ease, Marius laughed and pushed at him. Elias only tightened his grip as the weak waves crashed around his shins, but then a freckling of ice-cold water hit his back. Elias dropped Marius in surprise, and turned to see that the perpetrator was none other than Shuhrat. Marius laughed and ducked behind Elias, splashing the water back at the Russian. Elias starts to protest the treatment, but soon he was hit with water on all sides, the sound of laughter around him.  


“I’m going to get you!” Shuhrat taunts, and Marius dodges out of the way of another splashing. Elias snatches him though, and holds him against his chest, Marius facing outwards towards Shuhrat.  


“Shuhrat no!” Marius wriggles, still grinning.  


Shuhrat, smiling at Elias, double-palms the water and absolutely soaks Marius, Elias turning his head all the while to try and avoid the onslaught. “Whoa whoa, careful!” The smaller German tries to retain his balance as he holds Marius hostage, but it comes to be too much with one of his well-placed wriggles. The two of them fall over into the water, Shuhrat doubled over with laughter above them.  


“Oh my God that was so funny!” Shuhrat was doubled over with laughter as the sight of the two of them. He leans over and helps get Marius up and out of the water, then offers an arm out to Elias. Surprisingly, the German didn’t take it. Had he done something wrong? Hurt, he decided to turn his attention back to Marius who was looking out towards where Dominic had swum to.  


“Dominic?” he calls.  


Elias crouches in the cold saltwater, looking sheepish. “Sorry Shuhrat, I was still shocked by the water, I didn’t mean to come off as rude.” What Elias didn’t know was that Shuhrat definitely noticed that he was hard. But… he didn’t have to be an asshole about it. It was Marius. It was difficult to not get aroused around him.  


“Don’t worry about it,” Shuhrat stated nonchalantly. He was waiting until Marius was out of earshot to tell the shorter man he knew the truth, but another one of Marius' calls for Dominic takes his attention.  


Dominic’s voice was faint, but understandable. “Guys! Come join me!” He beckoned, clearly unfazed by how far out he was.  


Shuhrat cups his hands in front of his mouth, yelling out towards the man.“What the fuck, how’d you get so far out?”  


“He’s too far,” Elias says, worry in his voice.  


Marius waves him off. “He’s fine. Dom’s on swim team.”  


“I know but still-”  


Marius pays Elias no mind, starting to make his way out towards Dominic. Not wanting to get left behind, Shuhrat shrugs to Elias and begins swimming as well. Elias follows, but Shuhrat can see he’s the weakest swimmer of the bunch. If he gets left behind on the beach, then that’s his problem. It’s less competition for him.  


They do all make it out eventually, even if Elias looks more worried than the rest. “That… was… so much.” Elias said between breaths. He was forever grateful for Dominic dragging them all to swimming practice semi-weekly. If it hadn’t been for that, he wouldn’t have braved coming out this far. Unbeknownst to them, Dominic had gotten bored and swam back to them a little, so he wouldn’t have to wait much longer.  


“Next time just swim back.” Marius laughed, having recovered by the time the other two joined. “The shore has plenty of room for a couple of new pansies to grow on it.”  


Elias and Shuhrat purse their lips a bit, looking at each other. Neither of them were going to back down from swimming out here, as perilous as it felt in the cold water. After all: Marius was here.  


“You ever think about what could be right underneath you?” Dominic asks, floating on his back. “Deep sea creatures swimming up to the shore for a little snack?”  


Marius cringes, “Dom, don’t…”  


“You know they put all those sea serpents on old maps for a reason. They’d slither out of the depths and-”  


“Don’t listen to him, Marius,” Shuhrat says. “Nothing is going to get us out here. It’s Maryland.”  


“Nothing interesting happens in Maryland,” Elias agrees. That earns a chuckle from Marius, and his worries seem to be quelled.  


Dominic flips over and starts to swim around, doing laps around the three of them. He starts to say something else, probably something about Maryland being a shithole, but then he stares towards the shore. “We’re… farther out than I thought we’d be.”  


Elias glances back, followed by Marius and Shuhrat. “...The shore does look really far away.”  


“I read that you can’t swim to shore in a riptide,” Marius says.  


Dominic nods. “Come on, we’ll be fine. Just follow me.” He starts swimming as Marius had indicated, but as they swim as a group, they realize they’re going to have to go quite a bit down the shore. “Just keep going,” Dom instructs.  


Shuhrat grimaces, Elias turning towards him for a moment. “You okay? We need to pause?”  


“Leg’s just hurting,” he says, and Elias looks embarrassed at that.  


“Man up, keep going. If you need a break, just turn on your back for a second and float. But we’re not going to get back to shore the usual way.”  


“Scenic route,” Marius says, and it sounds like he’s trying to keep positive about the whole affair. Shuhrat nods, then paddles after the rest of them.  


The cold water was taking its toll on all of them, and after a good twenty minutes of swimming, Dominic turns towards land.  


Elias’s breathing was short, and Marius drifts closer to him to help support him. “I’ve got you,” he says. “Just a bit farther.”  


They struggle onto the shore, all exhausted by the endeavor. Shuhrat’s legs feeling like absolute jelly. Dominic stumbles out of the breakers, landing his ass on the soft sand. Marius lays on his side next to Elias, groaning in displeasure.  


“Now are you guys happy I dragged you to swim practice?” Dominic asked, despite already knowing the answer. A chorus of groans answers him, and he waves them off, the German rolling onto his back. “Just… shake it off,” he says. “Pussies.”  


Shuhrat was tired enough to just sleep it off instead. And when he’s sure that he isn’t going to get swept up by the waves, he does, closing his eyes. Towel be damned, he doesn’t want to crawl over to it. Besides, it was all the way down the shore. He just gives into the lull of sleep, drifting off.  


\------------------------  


When he awoke the sky was dark at the edges, ultramarine clouds swept over the landscape. Groaning as his muscles protested movement, Shuhrat looked around and noticed that he was the only one awake that he could see. Each movement made his muscles ache, but that wasn’t going to stop him from waking the others up. If it was this dark, they needed to figure out what they wanted to do: stay, or go. He drags himself to his feet and moves on the beach, the lights of civilization just a haze in the distance.  


The sight when he walked over to the others broke his heart. Both Marius and Elias were cuddled up against each other, with the latter man’s body pressing up against the thinner one in a gentle embrace. They looked… peaceful. Gentle. Elias looked even protective, spooned up Marius as he was. Shuhrat nudged Elias with his foot, a small sneer on his face.  


“What time is it?” Elias asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Sitting up, he seemed not to realize at first where he was, or who he was with. Turning his gaze up at Shuhrat, Elias looked confused as to why the Uzbek was grinning. That was, until he looked down and saw the compromising position he and Marius were in.  


“I see you caught some, ah, driftwood.” Shuhrat nods to the tent in the German’s swim shorts. Elias moves away from Marius like the man was electrified, and Shuhrat feels rather content with his work. He watches as Elias carefully tried to step over the sleeping German and get to Shuhrat, but all the moving around just woke him up anyway.  


Marius’ voice was heavy with sleep and far too cute as he asked, “Elias, what’re you doing?”  


Despite wanting to embarrass the German, Shuhrat thought of a way to get his friend out of the awkward situation.“We must’ve been sleeping for hours, I don’t know what time it is, but it must be late.” Shuhrat was surprised that his voice was so even as he answered. Maybe he was just getting better at bullshitting. In any case, Marius seemed to believe the excuse and he turned his gaze up at the sky, marveling at the stars that had appeared while they’d slept. Elias nodded quickly to Shuhrat in thanks, steadily moving away from the two of them. The whole “driftwood” situation hadn’t quite solved itself yet.  


Needing to get away from Marius, Elias volunteered to go to the car and check his phone for the time. All of them end up walking down the beach back towards the car, as they’d had to swim quite a ways to get away from the riptide. They perk up a bit as they walk, at least, dusting the sand off of their skin as they go.  


Elias takes the opportunity to jog ahead, and when the others arrive, he’s holding everyone’s discarded clothes. “So, it’s only about eleven. You guys wanna head home, or…?”  


There’s a moment of silence as the four of them look between each other, trying to suss out the best answer. Shirts are shrugged on as they think it over, stars peeking out of the dark miasma above them. Dom is the one who takes it upon himself to make the decision, the German brushing sand off of his shoulders. “Well we’ve only been awake for an hour or two, how about we chill for a bit before driving back?” The others seemed to agree with his statement, so Elias was relieved that the choice wasn’t up to him. “I know the joke was made but I’m not actually sleeping out here.”  


“Of course you wouldn’t,” Elias replies, slipping the phone in the pocket of his now-dry swim trunks. “Dominic? Sleep in the sand?”  


“Fuck off.”  


“I mean, staying a bit longer sounds really nice.” Marius’ voice had such a warmth to its tone. Elias was glad that he had thought ahead for meals at very least. Walking back to his car, the German grabbed the cooler of food and one of the fish-net wrapped firewood bundles they’d picked up at a gas station. Dominic joined him, helping him carry the supplies back without complaint. Elias was grateful for the assistance, but he expected no less. Dominic was his friend, that’s just how it was.  


Shuhrat was surprised that everyone else had been so willing to stay. The stiffness in his body made him want to do nothing more than jump into bed and never get up. Well, maybe more a stumbling into bed, considering how sore he felt. Regardless, he tried to help the two Germans setting up the fire. Well he was, until he noticed Marius was shivering on the other side of the two, even with his shirt on. “I’m gonna get something for him,” Shuhrat says, Elias and Dominic nodding shortly as they tried to get the newspaper kindling to catch to the wood. Run-walking to the car, Shuhrat grabbed a couple of towels from the backseat, hoping it’d be sufficient for Marius.  


The gift of the towels laid across Marius' back were greeted with a “Thanks, Shuhrat. Fuck it’s really cold out here, huh? Didn’t expect it to get this chilly at night.” Looking at the Uzbek who seemed to be encountering the same problem he had, Marius beckoned him closer and opened his arms like he was offering a hug. ”C’mere.”  


Shuhrat wasn’t expecting the German to ask him to come closer, but he wasn’t complaining in the least. The feeling of Marius' bare skin against his own was something he’d only dreamed about before. Shuhrat rests against him, arms around the other’s slight frame, slipping underneath the towel. He could feel him breathing, could feel him relaxing. And when it was time for the mutual drawing away, he didn’t feel the need to try to insist on more. They sat together on a piece of driftwood in front of the fire that Elias and Dominic had been able to stabilize, the other two settling into place around the flame. Despite the chill ocean breeze blowing off of the water, Shuhrat felt right at home with Marius next to him. For the first time that day, he actually felt… content.  


The crackling wood mesmerized Shuhrat as the heat from the flames tore through the cold air. Dominic raises his palms towards the fire, warming his hands. Elias piped up, announcing “I brought hot dogs and marshmallows just for this moment,” and gesturing to the cooler that he’d unpacked from his car. Marius' eyes lit up, Dominic’s genuinely excited “you didn’t pack wurst, did you?” pierced through the air as the lean man made a beeline for the cooler. Marius moved away from Shuhrat and grabbed a couple of sticks from Elias, spearing three marshmallows onto a long, wooden skewer.  


“Just be careful, they’re wood.” Elias turns away from Marius as Dominic paws through the cooler to find his prize. Marius sits at the fire, carefully balancing his stick over the flame, eyes attentive to the marshmallows.  


After a minute of searching, Dominic starts complaining that Elias didn’t pack wurst, and how could he betray him this way. He shoves the man lightly in the shoulder, which turns into the two of them grappling a bit on the outskirts of the fire. They start laughing and arguing in German, playfully from what Shuhrat could tell, and Marius gets between them with his skewer, threatening peace with a slightly toasted marshmallow. It’s hard for him to enjoy the scene when he’s missing Marius' leg bumping up against his own, but it does get a small smile out of him. Marius was doing his best to keep things civil, but with Elias and Dominic’s own grins, it didn’t seem like the argument over sausages was anything serious.  


“Apparently Elias isn’t a real German anymore,” Marius quips as he plops back down in the sand, giving Shuhrat the sum-up. “Dominic says he can be an Uzbek if he likes.”  


Shuhrat laughs. “Sorry Elias, but it takes much more than being a disgraced German to be a true Uzbek.”  


Elias chuckles, still keeping an eye on Dominic, who had managed to cuff him once soundly on the head already. “That’s fine, that’s fine. I’m fine with being an extremely disgraced German. I’ll be German nonetheless.” He shoots Shuhrat a smile before sitting down next to Marius.  


That bitch. Shuhrat growled to himself. Glaring at Elias, he walked over to Dominic and sat next to the swimmer. The man in question was currently scarfing down his second hot dog when Shuhrat plopped down next to him. Dominic looked like he was trying to spy on Marius out of the corner of his eye just like he was, but he doesn’t say anything else about it.  


As the fire crackled between them, Shuhrat was finding it hard to listen to their conversation. All he knew was that Elias was making Marius laugh uncontrollably. Remembering that Dominic was sitting next to him, he decided to start a new conversation with the German, in hopes that it would take Marius' attention off of Elias.  


“So, Dominic, are you a virgin?” The effect was instant. The German choked on the hot dog he was eating, and the conversation on the other side of the fire came to a halt. All eyes were on Dominic as he scrambled to find a witty answer.  


“No, I’m not. Why, were you going to relieve me of my v-card?” He winked suggestively, hoping that his response would satisfy the Uzbek. Laughs echoed throughout the beach as Maris and Elias tuned into the conversation. “Why do you want to know?”  


“I was just wondering - you’re such a great swimmer. With all that stamina, you must be able to make a lover rather happy. If you’d managed to hook one at some point.” Shuhrat laughed back, proud that it had gone according to plan.  


“Wait… are you a virgin?” Dominic asked, taking another bite of the hot dog.  


“Ehh… I’m not, however, it has been a while. Bit too long for my liking really.” Shuhrat says, finally taking a skewer and getting a marshmallow started for himself. While he wasn’t expecting the question. He wasn’t going to refrain from telling them the awkward truth if that meant that the other two would answer.  


“How about you two?” Dominic beat him to the questions.  


Elias shrugs awkwardly, turning his hot dog over to cook the other side. “I’m not.” He looked suspicious, but before Shuhrat could ask any follow up questions, Marius piped up.  


“I am.”  


Silence and disbelief filled the beach; after all, all three of them knew what Marius was capable of. They’d seen it firsthand. “I mean I- I’ve used. Toys and stuff. But I haven’t been with another person yet.”  


Shuhrat felt a thrum run through him. If he could convince Marius to sleep with him… he’d be his first. And he’d always have that. Even if he ended up with someone else, even if they never saw each other again after college, Shuhrat would be able to say he was the first one who really made Marius squirm and writhe and whimper for real. And that thought consumes him for a long moment.  


“Guys?” Marius tries to break the silence that had followed his confession. Marius’ voice pulled Shuhrat out of his thoughts and he noticed the same happened to the others as well.  


“Sorry, I didn’t realize that you were… I thought since…” He quickly cut himself off. Shuhrat wouldn’t be able to disclose how much he knew about Marius' sex life without exposing himself as a creep. Luckily, Dominic saved him.  


“What he meant to say was, we’re a little shocked because you seem like someone who’d have a lot of experience, am I right? You’re a stud, Marius.” He nudged Shuhrat and looked toward Elias towards the end of the sentence. It didn’t seem to ease Marius much, but Elias starts talking about German drinking songs and Dominic bemoans their lack of beer loudly enough for anyone within a three mile radius to know that they really, really wanted to drink underage (for this country, at least).  


Even without beer, the four of them handle fine. Elias and Dominic cheer along a German brewing song that even Marius hums along to. Shuhrat claps to the beat, then gets up, dancing a bit with the others as he shows them some of the turns and roundabouts that somehow everyone knew at instinct. Despite the soreness of his legs, he could find the energy for this. After all, it just came naturally. Soon they were pairing off and pairing in and away and together, and for a while, since the pairing happens so quickly and the parting just as so, and the boys’ voices are loud enough to wake the dead with their god-awful singing, Shuhrat doesn’t worry about impressing Marius. He’s just happy and company-drunk, and by the time they settle down from their antics the fire is little more than glowing embers on the sand.  


Shuhrat laughs off the tail end of some joke Elias had said, then checks his phone to see the time. “Oh fuck. guys, its nearly one, we should start heading back now. Elias, are you still okay to drive?”  


“Ja, don’t worry about it. I’ve had worse all nighters.”  


“Don’t remind me, finals are coming up in three weeks.” Dominic starts packing up the cooler, and the rest of them follow suit. Shuhrat feels a bit of a heaviness settle into his bones as he gathers up the towels and kicks some sand over the embers, smothering the fire. It was late, but the stars above were nice, if sparse. The light pollution from the coastal neighborhoods wasn’t doing the Maryland beach any favors. A wave of panic hit him as Shuhrat worried about classes the next day - and then he remembers it was the weekend. Thank God.  


He climbs into the backseat, exhausted. Shuhrat wasn’t even expecting Marius’ presence until the German laid his head against Shuhrat’s shoulders. The other two looked back at them and quickly mumbled some words in their native language. Sharp words were traded without their fellow countryman noticing, as Marius had fallen asleep the second he laid his head down. Shuhrat on the other hand wanted to know what the two up front were talking about. Making sure not to wake Marius up, he asked Elias and Dominic quietly what they were discussing.  


“We were just talking about today,” the former replied, his eyes darting between Dominic and Shuhrat. Sighing he disclosed the truth. “Well… more like… how everything went with Marius. We were talking a bit about who might be best for him.”  


Shuhrat gasped at the revelation and quickly checked to ensure Marius was still asleep. Once he was sure the German was, he turned back to the other two. “And what’s the consensus?”  


“That’s he’s not an object, asshole,” Dominic spits. “We don’t decide this shit on his behalf.”  


Elias rolls his eyes, looking at the man in the rearview mirror. “We were actually wondering if you were treating this like a competition for Marius' affections. And it seems we’ve gotten our answer on that.”  


“What do you- you two have been competing for his attention all day,” Shuhrat hisses.  


Dominic deadpans, “Wow, it’s almost like we’re his friends and enjoy spending time with him. If you think we’ve been “competing” all day, then you have it all wrong. We like Marius. And sure, we all think he’s cute, but it’s not like we’re going to throw away our friendship over that.”  


“It’s… Disappointing.” Elias turns his eyes back to the road, his voice sounding genuinely upset. “I mean I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you-”  


“My experience has been more mixed-”  


“Shut up Dom. Listen, Shuhrat, I thought we were friends. It’s been nice getting to know you - Marius always said good things about you in our German lit seminar. Fuck, I thought we were getting along, for the most part. But if all you saw today was a competition… are we just obstacles in the way for you on your way to slam Marius' not-so virgin ass?”  


Shuhrat blanches at his bluntness. “I- no, of course not. And how-”  


“You nearly told him you watched his damn camshow on the beach earlier,” Dom says. “And yeah, we’ve seen it. We both know. And neither of us have made a big goddamn deal about it.”  


Elias puts on his turn signal to take the ramp up to the highway, sounding tired. “We knew about that before we even knew Marius as a person. We’re good at putting two and two together, but it’s not like he ever wanted to talk about it. I figured he keeps his shit separate, like any professional. So we respected that.”  


“We respected that,” Dominic grinds out. “Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew it was us and just kept quiet about it because that’s what regular people do. We tell him we’ll see him in class at the end of his streams.”  


Blitz and Bandit from chat. It was them, the donators. That made… that made sense.  


Shuhrat glances down at the sleeping man leaning on his shoulder, feeling a pang of guilt. “...I knew him before I found out he was doing that,” he murmurs. “I liked him. Really liked him. I still like him.”  


Elias drums his fingers against the steering wheel. “That’s all well and good. But he said no to you - he told us that you’d tried to ask him out. And when I asked him out, he said yes.” Silence. Shuhrat prayed that Elias would say he was lying, but the words never came. Dominic even looked taken aback by the news. The car engine rumbled, and Elias clicked on the radio, beach music quietly piping through the speakers.  


“How-how is that possible?” Shuhrat asked, disbelief flooding him.  


“I don’t know.” He shrugged mockingly. “I guess I want to do more than shove my dick in his ass.”  


Suddenly the body next to Shuhrat’s moved. Making a warning noise to alert the others that the topic of their conversation had just woken up.  


“What are you guys talking about?” Marius asked, his voice still groggy.  


Elias replied easily, defusing the whole conversation with a simple statement. “Just talking calc, Marius. Going over theorems from last class.”  


“Yeah, calculus.” Shuhrat affirmed weakly, looking out of the window. Feeling Marius settle back against him didn’t give him the same comfort anymore. Not when he knew that Marius would go out with Elias, when he’d said that he didn’t have time for Shuhrat. What didn’t he have? What wasn’t he getting right?  


Lights passed along the highway, and before long, the car stopped outside his dorm. Shuhrat gave a small wave goodbye, greeted only by Elias’s stony stare and Dom’s half-scowl, the man of his dreams still asleep in the back. Shuhrat flicked on the lights in his room and crumbled onto his bed.  


The tears didn’t stop until Shuhrat was fast asleep.


End file.
